hmmmm

drunk on a saturday night. what's new? typical stupid bar people. blah. they all suck. sometimes i hate people. maybe that's why i don't have very many friends.

rode today. fabulous. i finally got out of that "grandma" gear as it was called on thursday. i'm now running a 51" gear. big deal. but, i like it. it's more funner than the wimpy gear. plus, i'm faster. but, of course, there's a trade off. i get tired more quicker. 3 laps at maybury was all i could muster. the legs burned and yet i was fast...for 3 laps. the mud sucks. this weather rocks!

turkey roll on thanksgiving day. fun! absolutely gorgeous weather. i was in a good mood on thursday. a very good mood. my turkey turned out awesome. my gravy was to die for. really.

i've been active this week. 5 mile run on monday. a lap and a half @ novi on tuesday. brined the turkey on wednesday. yeah, i know that doesn't count but at least i had a hopslam! fast 2.5 mile run on friday. 3 laps @ maybury today. not bad....

BUT, the scale is telling me i'm gaining weight. 176 today. why? that's 11 more pounds than when i had that colonoscopy back in, um, was it the summer? so what gives? am i sick again? i haven't weighed this much since my surgery. kinda scary. but i feel okay. i really don't think anything is happening. i feel fine. but it is that time of year for the annual test. mri. bloodwork. blah, blah, blah. some days are better than others. some days you just feel like dying...

blah

the cold of late fall has settled in and it's something i need to accept. i haven't been on the bike since last sunday, and on top of that i'm nursing another hangover. big surprise. that's the worst part about partying is having to pay the price the next day. i'm too old for this. but it sure is fun while you're doing it!

i went for a hour long run up at bloomer yesterday. that was the first time i've run up there. good trail and i got to see the infamous stairs. i wish it wasn't so far away. i'd definitely do them regularly.

i've decided to do the turkey roll on thanksgiving instead of the turkey trot. as much as i want to run another race, i think 10,000 people would be a bit overwhelming. so ride it is. plus, the weather is supposed to be nice all week. so i'm planning on joining the tree farmers on tuesday for their anniversary ride. run tomorrow, ride tuesday, maybe a run wednesday and then ride thursday. that sounds like a plan! still undecided about going out on wednesday. i do have to cook the turkey this year, so i'll probably be too busy wednesday night to go out and party like i did last year. and what a crazy night that was!

okay, off to bed and hopefully i'll feel A LOT better tomorrow...

i'm a runnin' fool!

lightfest was a blast! well, the run part was anyway. we had a good turnout...11 of us in total along w/ the other 1000 runners/walkers. my achilles felt halfway decent when i got up so i was really hoping it wouldn't flare up during the race. i told junior i was gonna kick his ass. just a little spirited competition. the kid doesn't run so i thought i might have a chance at beating him. god knows i won't ever beat him on a bike!

i generally start my runs slowly. it takes about 2 miles for me to truly warm up and get into a rhythm. sure enough as i pass the 2 mile marker i have my breathing under control. i take a peek at my watch 16:00 on the nose. cool. 8 min miles. my goal was 40 mins for the 5 miler. right on target. now, the only question is can i keep this pace and can i outlast junior? he has an akward stride but he was going pretty good. i stayed about 5 seconds behind for the first 3 miles then i started picking things up. mile 3 goes by then mile 4. one more mile to go. chris is still right with me as was eric. half mile to go. i put the hammer down. i was running as fast as i could. i felt great. where's the finish? i thought i had dropped chris but out of nowhere he passes me on my left. damn that young whippersnaper. i was hoping the finish was a litte bit closer. so he's gone. i hear the announcer at the finish announcing times. 39:25. 39:35. oh shit, i need to keep going or i won't be under 40. i crossed the line at 39:47! yea! i finally achieved a goal! well, i didn't beat junior, but having him pace me throughout the race definitely helped me get under 40 mins. what a blast that was! i would totally do that again. i can't believe i like running. how weird.

so we waited around for the bus back to the start so we could get out of our wet clothes and get some food and beer. i felt pretty good aside from my aching achilles. luckily, they didn't bother me too much during the race but they were definitely on fire afterwards. i changed into a dry shirt and some jeans and hit the road. that was when it started. my body was aching...like it had the flu. it just got worse and worse until i finally got home and had the chills so bad i crawled straight into bed. my bones hurt. my head pounded. my skin was a touch pad for pain. i was soooooo cold. i couldn't stop shaking. then i started sweating. i hurt so bad i couldn't fall asleep. i thought i had come down with a serious case of the flu. i woke up around 6AM and surprisingly felt pretty decent. what gives? what the fuck happened to me the night before? could the flu go away that quickly? this stupid body of mine does some strange ass things. things that doctors can't even explain. oh well. i'm alive. i feel pretty decent. i can run. i can ride. i'm happy. mucho happy!

lightfest

running. that's what i'm doing. well, that and single speeding. so i'm supposed to run 5 miles through the light displays on hines dr. tomorrow night. not a problem, right? well, if you guys know me well enough, i always seem to make things interesting. interesting, meaning i hurt myself or get sick or some other stupid-ass reason. i thought i'd get the legs loosened up tonight by doing a quick 3 miler. after 15 minutes both of my achilles started killing me! this has never happened before. ran 4.5 miles last wed. and felt fantastic. so what gives? i have no idea. i just know that i'm limping around and will probably have a hard time completing the 5 miles tomorrow. i'm definitely not doing it in 40 mins, which was my goal. it's so weird that out of nowhere my achilles hurts. i'm gonna tough it out, have a fun run and kill the pain w/ some beer and good friends afterwards.

i've gotten out on the single speed two more times. last thursday at stoney and yesterday at pontiac. oh my gawd is it addictive! i'm not the best climber on it...yet...but i think with a little bit of practice, i'll get a lot stronger. i'm really digging the rigid fork as well. it's not as bad as i thought and i'm riding it much smoother. my hands didn't even hurt after riding pontiac yesterday! like many other people, i just love the simplicity of the bike. no rattling chains, no mis-shifts, no ghostshifting and best of all no noise! i knew i'd be back into riding right as the cold weather rolls in. i just did so little riding this summer and now i'm regretting it just as i knew i would. i hate the cold but i should be able to get in another half dozen or so rides before it gets too cold for my pansy ass.

anyway, here's to limping my way 5 miles along hines drive! yee haw!

iceman

i've finally mustered up enough energy to write a post-iceman report. one word can describe the race for me...DISAPPOINTING. it seemed like so many things worked against me. i am not making excuses. i gave it everything i had, and i sucked. i came down w/ the stomach flu late friday morning. i thought i was in the clear when i woke up friday morning and still felt decent. but a couple hours later, at work, it hit me. same shit mason and jackie had. nausea. and lots of it. you just felt like you wanted to puke your guts out but you never really reach that point. then the throat started hurting. then the body chills set in. by the time i got up to traverse city, i was in rough shape. oh yeah, i almost forgot. my legs felt like hell on friday! they hurt so much i was walking stiff-legged (not the good kind either) because they were too shaky when i bent them. BUT, i tried to shake all this off and pretended i felt fine. i picked up some drugs to help w/ the nasea and chills. tried to eat but had no appetite. i just wanted to sleep. so i did. around 11:00. i totally expected to wake up in the middle of the night w/ a 102 fever and chills and puking my brains out. i woke up at 3AM. nothing. well, i had a bad stomach ache but that was all. no chills. no sore throat. no fever. hell, i felt so good and was so excited, i was ready to race right then and there. no dice. it was three in the fucking morning. i tried to fall back to sleep but just tossed and turned for the next two hours. talk about torture. i guess you could call it chinese torture, right? i finally fell asleep and awoke to daylight. i knew it was time to go.

i got up, choked down some oatmeal, which didn't sit to well and packed up for kalkaska. the familiar nervousness that comes before every race settled over my body. we were running a touch late. actually, we were running really fucking late. by the time we geared up and got the warmers positioned, the tires inflated, the chain lubed, it was time to go. i mean people show up one, even two hours before the race to get settled and warmed-up. nope. not us. our start time was 10:10. we still had to ride to the start and drop off our clothes bag. it was 10:03 at this point. i handed off my bag and told all the riders that were already in line that i was in the next wave. luckily, they were nice enough to let us get into our proper wave. 10:07. damn, that was close. too close. 3 minutes and off we go. but another road block was thrown up when i heard the announcer say that they had extended this year's race course to 28.2 miles. fuck. not good. my longest training ride was only just over 2 hours. i was hoping that would be good enough. i took it easy the first 5 miles. hell, i took it easy the whole race just to conserve energy for the hills at the end.

about half way through, things were going pretty smoothly. i felt decent, my stomach was okay, the legs didn't hurt and i was cruising along. until some racer boy came out of nowhere and cut in front of me throwing an inch diameter stick into my front spokes. it was in slow motion. i remember seeing the stick come up, and then i saw the tread on my front tire...not moving. at that point, i knew i was going over. and over i went. involuntary noises. i hit the ground hard. my left foot got caught in the pedal and tweaked my foot so hard my calf locked up. that was what hurt most. i was rolling around on the ground trying to unlock my calf while there were several riders that stopped to see if i was okay. it must've been quite a spectacular crash. imagine someone going 17-18mph and then locking the front wheel. i must've flew quite a long ways. luckily, i was okay. i bit shaken, a sore left calf and a slightly sprained left wrist. i got back on the bike and was on my way again. i probably lost about 45 seconds.

mile 20. that's where the fun starts. and that's when my legs started fading. oh shit climb was what did me in. i walked up the hill with pretty much everybody else and my legs were cramping up mildly. luckily, i brought a reserve supply of endurolytes so that took care of the cramping. but, i got slower and slower. i was going so slow, i wasn't even breathing hard. i just had no juice in the legs to push the pedals. so i started getting cold. and miserable. and nauseous. i just wanted the race to be over. last aid station. 5 more miles. fuck. that means i'll be out here another half hour. the last 5 miles were ridiculously slow. my legs were weak but they never burned. thanks to sportlegs. if you have legs that burn on the climbs, check this product out. it really works. my legs didn't burn at all the whole race. now, they don't help you w/ endurance or anything but, hey, no pain. there was one point i asked myself what i was doing out there. i didn't want to race ever again. it was stupid. i hated the race. i hated the course. i hated it even more when i entered the campground and thought i was done. nope. i had to ride another 1km through that stupid-ass maze before i finished. 2:30 and some odd seconds. sad. i felt like puking. not because of the ride but because i was sick as fuck. nothing ever came up and i slowly started feeling better. hell, by the time i picked up the car in kalkaska and driving back to tc, i was saying how much fun i had and how i couldn't wait til next year. once you're bitten by the bug, you're hooked...forever.

so, looking back at the race, i really wasn't physically ready for it. i looked at my ride log yesterday. i didn't do ANY rides over 2.5hrs since the addison mudfest back in may. so, the whole summer not one long ride. no wonder i failed so miserably. you just can't do infrequent hour and a half rides and expect to kick ass at iceman. it's a tough course (for me) period. i don't care what anybody says. the last 6 miles are brutal. i WILL be ready for this one next year. more long rides, and more hills. maybe even single speed.

24 more hours!

24 hours from now, i'll be inching my way up to the frigid start line hoping my legs feel better than they do today. i think they're worse today than they were yesterday. oh well, not much i can do about it now. i've been REALLY excited about this race and really looking forward to it. sure i want to do well, but i'm just going to go out and try to have a fun race. the only thing that will keep the race from being fun is if my legs cramp up again. that will remain at the back of my mind until i can complete this race without aforementioned problems. see, i'm purdy smart. i can still use big words! in the spirit of dustin, i'm gonna go out and thurally enjoy my ride tomorrow! BRING IT!!!

what was i thinking?!?!

so i wasn't gonna do anything last night...no running, no lifting. and then i thought that maybe i'd do 10 body-weight squats just to get some blood flowing in the legs. that felt good. so i did 20 more...then 10 more...then 15 more...then 20 more...then 10 more...what was i thinking??? afterwards, i could barely walk up and down the stairs. i guess the legs weren't recovered from monday's ride and i just blew them way out. they're really sore and weak today...and it's already thursday! i really hope they recover somewhat by saturday morning or i'll be in a whole lotta hurt halfway through the course. i should've just rested them until saturday but i was thinking that may be too much rest. well, looking back now, i guess more rest is better than blown out legs. i'm such an idiot.

snow?!?!

so the latest forecast is calling for 1-3 inches of snow tomorrow and an additional 2-4 inches tomorrow night! will the snow still be on the ground for the race saturday? hmmm...things could get interesting!

i'm really hoping i don't get sick before saturday. mason has the stomach flu and jackie is sick too. i feel like i'm on the verge so i started taking the zicam's again. i feel pretty run down so i think i'll just stay in tonight and get to bed early. i was thinking about going for a run tonight but my legs are still feeling it from the ride on monday. i guess a little more rest can't be bad for saturday. i do know that i'll be REALLY pissed if i get sick before the race. i'll be really bummed (no pun intended) if i don't get to smack some azzes on the race course. that's what racing's all about, right?